If My First Host Family Stole My Innocence, the Second One Just Plain Stole

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I landed on US soil, said my alhamdullilah’s as the plane touched the ground and thought, “where’s my cell phone.” Remembering that I always put it in my carry-on, I figured I would call my mom to tell her I had landed once I got through Customs.

After Customs, I opened my carry-on bag, and didn’t find my phone there. “Argh!” I thought, “must have accidentally packed it” However, when I opened my suitcase, my phone was not there.

I wanted to think the best, so I didn’t point the figure of blame until I was 100% sure. Today my suitcases have been sorted through and yet, I still can not find my phone. Yes, I believe my host family or rather, a member of it, left me with one last parting gift…

This great caper was more than just a nuisance,it solidifies for me the fact that the host family system is a broken one. It’s crazy how they can make or break your experience, it’s crazy how they have the power to take complete advantage of you. What’s more interesting is that just like in the case of the money that was stolen earlier this summer, the program officers think I’m lying, crazy/etc.
Well either that, or they don’t want to lose what they think is an amazing family (amazingly bad if you ask me). the funny thing is, I am even more convinced of their back stabbing when I reflect on what happened before we left on Saturday.

My room mate’s Ipod, mysteriously disappeared when she was in the shower. Thankfully, our host dad miraculously found it in-between her mattresses! a very strange place especially since she placed it on top of her book bag on the floor before going to dinner, returned to the room and quickly dis-robed to shower and then came back after she showered to find that her Ipod was missing. I wasn’t there till the tail end of her shower, but I helped her look for her Ipod. She even took apart the trash, piece, by piece.

Everyone feigned not knowing where her Ipod was, but it’s certainly strange that that thing jumped from the floor to in-between two matresses.

In terms of my phone, in looking for the Ipod we scoured our trash, under the beds with a flashlight and other crevices, if my phone had been there, I would have seen it. The last thing I did before leaving their home for the last time was to check and recheck everything to make sure that I didn’t leave anything.

So how or why I didn’t see my phone is a mystery, although not all that interesting to me.

At any rate, it’s over…

Thank you Moroccan host family for completely doing away with what was left of my belief that human beings are by nature kind or to be trusted. sigh.

Stealing is a big peeve of mine. Sheesh, my phone sucked, I mean they could maybe get 100 dirham for it I guess, but that’s not much… it’s so stupid…. sigh.

But to each his own. This summer I saw something up close and personal, I’ve learned how people can smile in your face and literally steal from you the moment you go to take a shower.

At any rate, here’s to all of my future host-family-less travels and living arrangements.

I don’t know about cars, but I can give you a 100 reasons why the host-family system sucks…. sigh.